Intel Working On 16-bit x86 Support For LLVM

While we have advanced well beyond the Intel 8086 in the processor world, an Intel open-source technology center developer is currently working on 16-bit x86 support for the LLVM compiler infrastructure.

LLVM code generation for 16-bit x86 isn't for the targeting support of the original Intel x86 CPUs or anything funky like that, but 16-bit code generation support is needed by a some open-source applications such as Wine.

David Woodhouse out of Intel's Open-Source Technology center has been principally responsible for LLVM 16-bit x86 mode enablement. With his latest LLVM/Clang compiler code, Woodhouse has been able to build the 16-bit startup code of the Linux kernel to work.

There aren't any major known issues with the 16-bit x86 LLVM support and is now encouraging real-world testing of LLVM's new code generation ability. More details on the 16-bit LLVM support can be found via this mailing list post.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the web-site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience and being the largest web-site devoted to Linux hardware reviews, particularly for products relevant to Linux gamers and enthusiasts but also commonly reviewing servers/workstations and embedded Linux devices. Michael has written more than 10,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics hardware drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated testing software. He can be followed via Twitter and Google+ or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.